THOMAS, SIROTKA BREAK OUT

Jerry Manuel and Frank Thomas had a long discussion on the field before Friday night's game at SkyDome.

Rest assured the topic wasn't tiddlywinks.

"He looked disturbed to me," Manuel said. "Something was bothering him and he was concerned about his hitting."

Thomas then busted out of an 0-for-11 skid, cranking a three-run home run to lead the White Sox to a 5-3 win over Toronto.

With Cleveland's loss to New York, the White Sox moved back into first place in the Central Division.

Mike Sirotka registered his first victory in more than a month, while Keith Foulke finished it off with 12/3 scoreless innings.

Though the Sox failed to get a hit in seven of the nine innings, they batted around against Kelvim Escobar in a five-run third and made it hold up. Escobar had retired the first six batters, five on strikeouts.

"His first couple of innings were probably some of the best stuff we've seen all year," Manuel said.

But Carlos Lee doubled and Mark Johnson walked, then came around to score on Ray Durham's double. After a walk to Jose Valentin, Thomas lifted a fastball 397 feet into the left-field stands to make it 5-0.

After the game, Thomas denied anything was bothering him.

"We were just talking hitting," he said of his pre-game talk with Manuel. "He told me to work on some things. That was it."

Sirotka, who hadn't won since April 14, gave up two runs in seven innings.

Carlos Delgado's RBI single off Kelly Wunsch in the eighth pulled the Jays within 5-3, and Foulke loaded the bases. But Foulke struck out Darrin Fletcher to escape and breezed through the ninth for his sixth save.